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The Pacific Ocean is warming off the U.S. coast and implying we could return to the El Niño phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation cycle, commonly called ENSO by meteorologists.

This should be good news for the majority of U.S. agricultural regions, says Art Douglas, a Creighton University meteorologist and professor emeritus who also works for CattleFax.

In fact, Douglas says the majority of the computer models, based on current changes in ocean temperatures and past weather patterns, suggest a wetter than usual spring and summer for most of the U.S. cropping and grazing areas. Even the droughty Southwest could get some extra moisture before rainfall wanes into the normal summer monsoon season, Douglas says.